Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.

Blood, sweat and beer: The Video Guy at Tough Mudder Seattle

Part of the Edge of Tomorrow team clowning around before things got real – and real dirty – during Tough Mudder Seattle.

I don’t remember when my leg started bleeding, but there it was: a bright shock of red streaming down my leg, likely garnered from banging against a large tree. By the time I thought to look at it again, it was caked with mud. That’s the beauty of Tough Mudder, where a little blood is the least of your concerns.

On Sept. 28, The Video Guy was at the Palmer Coking Coal Company in Black Diamond with thousands of other insane participants at Tough Mudder Seattle who were willing to push their minds and bodies to the limit to complete an 11-mile obstacle course designed by British military forces.

Last time I checked, this was definitely not my thing. I’m no stranger to the gym, but I’m still an overweight, 38-year-old father of two who would have much rather spent my time in front of 10 TV screens gorging on NFL football.

However, thanks to the awesome folks at Warner Bros., I entered the world of Tough Mudder as part of the Edge of Tomorrow team it put together in advance of the film’s Oct. 7 Blu-ray release date. I’ve mentioned before that the Tom Cruise film was a bright spot in a lackluster summer slate, and a large part of the movie hinges on Cruise suffering through a steep learning curve as he works with his team to defeat an invading force.

We didn’t have Emily Blunt on our Tough Mudder team, but some of the bona fides of the crew were equally as impressive, which again, made me wonder, what in the heck I was doing out in the woods with these people?

My team shirt, pre-mud.

There was Susan Francia, an Olympic gold medal winner in rowing; Johnny Quinn, former NFL fullback turned Olympic bobsledder; Michelle Warnky, only the second woman to complete the course on American Ninja Warrior; Scott Herman, YouTube fitness guru and “Real World” alum; and me, who still has a couple of the bowling trophies I won back when I was 10.

But the thing I found out about my teammates – and Tough Mudder itself – is that working together is part and parcel of the event. Yeah, save for the media types on my 12-person squad, the athletes were able to scale over walls in a single bound, but they also didn’t hesitate to offer me a foothold.

We all had on our Edge of Tomorrow t-shirts, but there were plenty of other colorful units out there, from packs of women wearing pink tutus to guys in three-piece suits to bare-chested dudes shouting “Go Cougs!” as they went by. “You’re doing great, Smith,” they would shout as they passed, even as I really wasn’t.

But I was able to surprise myself as well. I found myself clambering over walls without any assistance from my team, diving into icy cold water and swimming to the other side without hesitation, carrying a huge log on my shoulders, and not flinching when a giant man jumped on my back in order for me to carry him for (what seemed like) an agonizingly long distance.

There were certainly a few missteps that embodied the Live.Die.Repeat spirit of the film – running up a slippery, slanted hill in order to grab my teammates’ waiting hands proved difficult on the Edge of Tomorrow-sponsored “Pyramid Scheme” obstacle – but working together, we figured out a way to make it happen.

As I trudged up a seemingly vertical hill around mile 10, I could feel my mind telling me to give it up and my body simply staggering along due to physics. But I reached the top and took a look around – there was Mt. Rainier off in the distance on a beautiful Northwest day and here I was, doing something I’d never thought I’d do in my life. Down below, my much faster teammates were all waiting for me, cheering along as I rappelled down the side of the hill, delivering high-fives as I reached the ground.

Me, post-race with the awesome American Ninja Warrior Michelle Warnky, who was very helpful along the way.

There were more obstacles to come, but at that point, I knew I could get it done. (I must admit, I did skip the final challenge, a run through electric-eel like tendrils that delivered very real shocks.)

Earning my finisher headband (and my oh-so-tasty beer) meant a lot, and the friends and memories I picked up will last a lot longer than the scars on my knees. Next time, however, I’m hoping the good folks at Warner Bros. will consider another event that’s tied into a movie that takes place on a tropical island … or a five-star restaurant … or the Super Bowl.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.